THE HUGUENOTS


Today I want to write about the HUGUENOTS.  They are also a very important part of European history over the centuries. And they are still around, present and active in many of our countries.



The HUGUENOTS were the French protestants.  We are back in the 16th century, when religion was very much on the agenda.  A number of catholic monks and priests revolted against the catholic church and the way it was managed. Martin Luther ( 1483-1546 ) was one of them. He started what is today the Lutheran protestant church.  Jean Calvin ( 1509-64 ) was another one. A French priest, who founded what is now called the Calvinist protestant movement.  He wasn’t very popular in France, where the catholics did not want to see the protestant movement grow.  So, he moved to Geneva in Switzerland, where he lived and worked most of his life.
The Huguenots are the French Calvinists.  The word Huguenot is sort of a French version of the Swiss-German word Eidgenosse.     They are also called the Reformed Church.  They have churches without paintings or pictures. This is one of the reasons why Jews converting to Christianity normally join the Reformed Church.
At a certain moment about 10 % of the French population were Huguenots.  They were thriving craftsmen and traders.  But they were persecuted in France. On the so-called Bartholemew night in 1572 thousands of Huguenots were killed.   This made many emigrate to other countries, where protestantism had already been accepted. It was at the time in particular Brandenburg in Prussia in Germany and it was The Netherlands.
The Danish king, Christian V ( 1646-99 ) was married to Charlotte Amalie ( 1650-1714 ). She came from a very protestant-reformed family in Kassel in Germany. And she persuaded the king to invite Huguenots from Brandenburg to Denmark.  The first families arrived to Copenhagen in 1681. And about 70 families came in 1719 to settle down in the town of Fredericia in Jutland. It was a town the later king wanted to develop. Their part of the town is still called the “parsley neighbourhood”, because they planted parsley around their gardens.  It was also called “Little France”.
Those Huguenots were specifically tobacco growers. And they also brought the potato to Denmark – and taught the Danes to eat potatoes. 
There are still many descendants of the Huguenots in Denmark. They have family names like Honoré, Dupont, Devanter, Hermann, Lefevre, La Cour and Deleuran.
The Huguenots did not only move to Brandenburg, the Netherlands and Denmark. They came to many countries around the world.  We have met their descendants in places like South Africa and the US Virgin Islands. 
Many famous people are descendants from the Huguenots – such as  George Washington, Gustave Fabergé, Lawrence Olivier, Samuel Beckett, Georges Clemenceau, Joan Crawford, Davy Crockett and Robert Ladbroke.
Today about 80% of the Huguenots live in southern and western France.

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